Over half Illinois’ population is clustered in Chicago near Lake Michigan. Your money-saving Chicago vacation rental home, condo, or apartment can be in a high-rise with a doorman in the heart of the Loop with sweeping city and lake views. Be near State Street shopping, theaters, parks, lakeshore, and museums. Or choose a quieter area near train and bus lines. Golf, ride bicycles, fish, boat, ice skate, or walk along the lakeshore with the family. With the money saved from a vacation rental versus a downtown hotel, the whole family can even explore smaller cities west of Chicago, like Aurora and Rockford.

Part of Metro Chicago, Aurora is a slower-paced city with its own theater companies, casino, and Schingoethe Center of Native American Cultures. About two hours from Chicago, Rockford is a forested city bisected by the Rock River. A Rockford vacation rental is a trip back in time at the 137-acre Midway Village Museum with its gardens, dollhouse miniatures, and water-powered machine shops. Take the family on a tour of knitting history and former American manufacturing prowess in this city where John Nelson invented the seamless sock machine that made Rockford socks famous.